COUNCIL OKS EXTRA MONEY, TIME FOR GENERAL PLAN
GENERAL PLAN TO GET EXTRA MONEY, TIME

Already over budget and past due, the years-long project to write Menifee’s general plan — essentially the city’s long-term blueprint guiding growth and development — will get a boost in spending and an extended deadline.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a contract amendment for an additional $150,000 and an August 2013 deadline to complete the general plan writing that’s been slowed by extra meetings, materials and changes requested by the City Council, city managers, planning commissioners and advisory committee members.

“Every time we made those changes, we kept (adding) on extra money,” said Community Development Director Carmen Cave.

She added: “Everyone has had their two cents. I think the community has really been wanting to be involved and I think the desire to accommodate community involvement has driven the extra time and money in trying to make sure … we’re crafting a plan that matches the vision that the city has for itself.”

In fall 2009, Menifee contracted with The Planning Center, a Costa Mesa-based firm, to craft a general plan and environmental impact report for $1.05 million.

Those plans were due in 18 months — and 36 months after Menifee’s 2008 incorporation, according to state law — but city officials have had to ask for two one-year extensions due to the number of extra meetings and the expenses that have come with laying out what will become the city’s chief policy document.

For instance, the land-use map alone took more than a year to clear the General Plan Advisory Committee, which required nearly double the number of meetings called for originally.

The map “is what’s really drawn this whole thing out,” Planning Commissioner Chris Thomas said. “There are different perspectives on how this city should be designed.”

Also, there were expenses tied to multiple study sessions, public hearings and other tasks that required city officials to leave other components of the general plan unfunded.

“We robbed Peter to pay Paul to stay on budget,” said Cave, noting that what was an 18-month project will have taken 47 if it is completed in August.

The extra money approved Tuesday will restore pieces of the plan — some mandatory, some optional — that were eliminated earlier, including the economic development, community design and air quality elements, a fiscal assessment, traffic analyses, and further study sessions and public hearings.

In the end, the council approved the request — which was already included in the 2012-13 budget.

“I’m not exactly pleased that it went over the original contract, but hey, it’s a long process with the extra maps and staff time,” Mayor Scott Mann said. “Any time you get large groups of people together, everyone is going to have different opinions. OK, we’re taking a little bit more time and more money, but at the end of the day, we’re going to have a better product.”

Under state standards, each general plan consists of seven mandatory elements: land use, traffic circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise and safety.

Though her staff has completed work only on the noise, safety and housing elements, Cave said that meeting the state’s housing standards should allow for the April 15 deadline to be extended into August.

“As long as we continue to move forward, we should be OK,” Cave said. “The critical thing is we have a housing element that meets their standards. That hurdle has been cleared.”

Cave added that it is not uncommon that the writing of general plans runs long.

“These are huge policy documents, and policy is something you don’t rush, because it reflects the community and its vision of itself,” Cave said.

A number of changes in city managers — from George Wentz to Bill Rawlings to now Rob Johnson and consultant Shawn Nelson — and council majorities have added to Menifee’s delays, needed to allow for the city’s chief executives to review several rounds of changes to land use maps.

Hashing those out has required a significant amount of time and has ultimately delayed completion of the environmental impact report, which is now scheduled to be ready for a public hearing at the Planning Commission later this spring.

Meanwhile, the city has been operating under the standards set by the Riverside County Integrated Project, which has been in effect since well before Menifee incorporated in 2008.

“We’ve had too many hands in the cookie jar,” said Planning Commission Chairman Matt Liesemeyer, who said the commission last looked at the general plan in fall 2012. “Now we have a new council, and people with different mindsets for different things.”

Liesemeyer added that he was very eager to get back to work on the general plan: “I’d like to get it done.”